Social Media

Voice Messaging for Groups: Top Services Compared

Even though it's not a new concept, sending voice message blasts to a group of people appears to be a service on the rise. We've decided to break down four sites with distinct offerings in the hopes that you can easily find your preferred option for sending rapid voice messages to groups.

From freemium to premium, and simple to robust, you've definitely got options should you opt in favor of voice message broadcasting.

We're really curious how many people are actually using these services and for what purposes. We'd love to hear your thoughts about each service, your personal experiences, what you love or hate about group messaging, and whether or not you'd want to receive one of these messages. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

ShoutNow

ShoutNow is the newest, and simplest, addition to the space. The service, which was launched over the course of Indianapolis Startup Weekend in December, uses a pay-per-message model to let users send voice messages to a group of recipients. All you have to do is visit the website, enter your phone number, record your message, enter the phone numbers of recipients, pay your tab, and you're done.

At 99 cents for a 1 minute message to up to 10 contacts, ShoutNow offers a relatively cheap, but professional alternative to other freemium plans that include advertisements. The site doesn't appear to offer much in the way of additional features, like creating groups of contacts, but we can assume that is just a side effect to being brand new.

Phonevite

Phonevite, an older and more robust service (that even offers an iGoogle gadget), tackles the voice-message-to-many challenge slightly differently. You'll need to create an account and verify your phone number, but once you do you can import contacts, or add them manually, to create groups. Once you're all setup, you can take advantage of the free account that lets you create up to 25 calls, each with an ad promoting Phonevite (premium services are available starting at $25 and remove ads from calls).

To create a message just select to record via web (requires download) or phone, say your message, add contacts, and customize options like sending the message via email as well. Your message will be delivered with caller ID, and should you opt to include RSVP options for events, each recipient will be given the opportunity to select 1 for yes, 2 for no, or 3 for maybe, as well as record a response to the sender.

Tatango

Tatango is a multitasking service that takes on both voice and text group messages, and is a perfect option when 140 characters just doesn't cut it. Like Phonevite, Tatango offers users a free plan with advertisements tacked on to messages.

With Tatango, users create groups and use the group name to quickly alert a group of people with a text or audio message. Groups can also be promoted across social sites, like FriendFeed and Facebook, making it easy for event organizers and group coordinators to get an opt-in list of interested parties. Tatango's additional features include the ability to review sent messages, customize settings per group, send group invites, create a flash widget, and automatically syndicate updates from an RSS feed.

When you're ready to create your audio message from your phone, just text VOICE to 68398 and Tatango will call you so you can record your message. For members with more than one group, Tatango will text you back, before calling, with selection options.

Tatango's smooth interface, dual service, group customization options, and social site promotion options, make this site a joy to use and an incredibly useful option for organizer types.

Pingercast

Positioned more towards artists and celebrities with a large audience, Pingercast, by Pinger, lets you broadcast your voice message to anyone who wants to hear it for free. Once you sign up, you'll be walked through the process of creating a subscription widget for your website. Once you're done with that you can upload an audio recording, or create one via web or phone. You can also customize the SMS message users will receive once they subscribe to your voice updates.

Even though we originally thought the service was voicemail spam, I can immediately see a value in subscription-based voice messaging. As a group organizer, I can add this widget to the group site and members can subscribe to updates (should they choose to do so), and I can start recording informational messages on dates, times, events, and locations for group meetups. This particular option would save me some time and it's completely opt-in, so I wouldn't feel like I was harassing anyone.

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